BERLIN– A significant growth in the town’s commercial and residential capacity could begin construction by the end of the year.
A 120-acre piece of land at 9828 Seahawk Rd., across from Stephen Decatur High School, is expected to be annexed by the town and developed by Salisbury-based Rinnier Development Company.
“The first component of the development concept is market-rate apartments, similar to our Marley Manor project in Salisbury,” said CEO Blair Rinnier. “It’s something you’d see with a clubhouse and pool and landscaped grounds, so it’s a very nice community for folks to live at. It’s also a nice neighborhood for the folks around the community.”
The larger, 86-acre back portion of the property, currently zoned for agriculture, would house the residential property. Developers will need the county to approve a zoning change for residential use. The 34-acre front end of the property, already zoned for commercial use, would house retail shops and restaurants.
A preliminary letter of annexation was drafted last year, and the town received a formal petition for annexation at the end of May. The town and county are both evaluating the petition.
“Since we’ve gotten the petition our department heads have been reviewing all the potential impacts to the town – both benefits and challenges – to make sure that we can support the development and that the plan makes sense based on the infrastructure that we would have or that they would provide,” said Berlin Mayor Gee Williams.
The mayor does not foresee any snags in the process. “When we made that agreement we basically gave them the green light to make a significant investment,” he said.
The first planned phase of construction would be a 144-unit apartment complex, with construction taking 10-12 months. As many as 900 apartments could be added to the total capacity during later phases of a 15-20 year build-out period.
The town had discussed developing the property for more than a decade.
“The key thing here is we’re going to be working closely with the county so all the issues are resolved to everyone’s satisfaction,” Williams said. “I think a realistic timeline for a formal annexation agreement would come about at the earliest this summer and at the latest the early fall.”
“We’re pretty much ready to go as soon as we get through the annexation process,” Rinnier said. “We’re doing (similar) developments in Dover right now and in Salisbury, so our plan is already completed and would just have to be customized to the site. After the first phase we will take a break and see how well they lease up, and as the demand comes we’ll build them out.”
Rinnier believes the property will fill a major need in Berlin and the surrounding area.
“Worcester County is a little unique because it doesn’t have any market-rate apartments,” he said. “There’s no apartment communities that I’m aware of that aren’t subsidized by their tax credits or otherwise by their governments, so for the people that work at the retail stores – for the teachers, for the people that work at the hospital – they’ll have a very nice place that they can lease in a community that has amenities like a pool and a clubhouse and a fitness center. I think that’s really a need there.”
Williams called the plan “a major step forward for the community.”
“It’s been a long time since anything of that scale was even proposed,” he said. “But I think we’re ready. We have very qualified department heads, we’ve got the sewer and the basic infrastructure in place – we’ve made those investments – so now we just have to work with the developers to come up with the best plan to have the maximum benefit to the community.”
A 120-acre piece of land at 9828 Seahawk Rd., across from Stephen Decatur High School, is expected to be annexed by the town and developed by Salisbury-based Rinnier Development Company.
“The first component of the development concept is market-rate apartments, similar to our Marley Manor project in Salisbury,” said CEO Blair Rinnier. “It’s something you’d see with a clubhouse and pool and landscaped grounds, so it’s a very nice community for folks to live at. It’s also a nice neighborhood for the folks around the community.”
The larger, 86-acre back portion of the property, currently zoned for agriculture, would house the residential property. Developers will need the county to approve a zoning change for residential use. The 34-acre front end of the property, already zoned for commercial use, would house retail shops and restaurants.
A preliminary letter of annexation was drafted last year, and the town received a formal petition for annexation at the end of May. The town and county are both evaluating the petition.
“Since we’ve gotten the petition our department heads have been reviewing all the potential impacts to the town – both benefits and challenges – to make sure that we can support the development and that the plan makes sense based on the infrastructure that we would have or that they would provide,” said Berlin Mayor Gee Williams.
The mayor does not foresee any snags in the process. “When we made that agreement we basically gave them the green light to make a significant investment,” he said.
The first planned phase of construction would be a 144-unit apartment complex, with construction taking 10-12 months. As many as 900 apartments could be added to the total capacity during later phases of a 15-20 year build-out period.
The town had discussed developing the property for more than a decade.
“The key thing here is we’re going to be working closely with the county so all the issues are resolved to everyone’s satisfaction,” Williams said. “I think a realistic timeline for a formal annexation agreement would come about at the earliest this summer and at the latest the early fall.”
“We’re pretty much ready to go as soon as we get through the annexation process,” Rinnier said. “We’re doing (similar) developments in Dover right now and in Salisbury, so our plan is already completed and would just have to be customized to the site. After the first phase we will take a break and see how well they lease up, and as the demand comes we’ll build them out.”
Rinnier believes the property will fill a major need in Berlin and the surrounding area.
“Worcester County is a little unique because it doesn’t have any market-rate apartments,” he said. “There’s no apartment communities that I’m aware of that aren’t subsidized by their tax credits or otherwise by their governments, so for the people that work at the retail stores – for the teachers, for the people that work at the hospital – they’ll have a very nice place that they can lease in a community that has amenities like a pool and a clubhouse and a fitness center. I think that’s really a need there.”
Williams called the plan “a major step forward for the community.”
“It’s been a long time since anything of that scale was even proposed,” he said. “But I think we’re ready. We have very qualified department heads, we’ve got the sewer and the basic infrastructure in place – we’ve made those investments – so now we just have to work with the developers to come up with the best plan to have the maximum benefit to the community.”